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UFC heavyweight Todd Duffee out with rare nerve disorder

UFC heavyweight Todd Duffee has been diagnosed with a rare nerve disorder (Getty)

The UFC was reportedly considering putting Todd Duffee on their December UFC 168 card but the heavyweight will miss not only that event but may be also out for a year or more after being diagnosed with Parsonage-Turner syndrome. The knockout artist was awoken recently by shooting pain in his back and armand also had numbness and weakness.

“I kind of freaked out. Should I go to the ER? What do I do? It was that kind of pain. I just couldn’t move. I could kind of lift my shoulder to a certain extent, but I couldn’t use my hand fully. I could like pulse it, but I couldn’t close it. I couldn’t pick up anything with it or anything like that.”

Duffee got several tests done over the next few days to attempt to determine what was wrong with him. Finally, a neurologist diagnosed him with Parsonage-Turner syndrome, a condition where nerves are affected negatively and that causes numbness, weakness and pain in the arms.

“It’s one of those moments where your whole perspective on life changes and you have to start kind of looking at things differently,” Duffee admitted.

Doctors told Duffee that it could be a year until he fought again and the fighter said that it took him over a month until he was able to once more even make a fist with his right hand. The twenty seven year-old is optimistic that he will recover quickly, however.

“Already I’ve had a very fast recovery,” Duffee said. “I’m very advanced.”

Duffee made his return to the UFC Octagon after over two years last December, winning a TKO over Philip De Fries. His overall record stands at 8-2.

We wish Duffee a speedy and full recovery and look forward to seeing him in the ring again soon.